Tonight, at the historic Palestra in Philadelphia, the Penn State men’s basketball team played host to the No. 20 Illinois Fighting Illini.
Illinois’ Kylan Boswell got the Fighting Illini on the board with the first five points of the game.
PSU’s Eli Rice, answered with a three to make the score 9-3 in Illinois’ favor (17:23).
The Fighting Illini kept pouring it on and at the (15:33) mark the score was Illinois 13 Penn State 3. Boswell was leading all scorers with seven points.
Penn State cut the lead to four (13-9) after a made triple by Dominick Stewart and an ‘and-1′ by Melih Tunca (15:12).
Illinois was out-rebounding Penn State 10-5 with four being offensive rebounds. The Nittany Lions could not afford to let the No. 20 team in the land second opportunities.
At the (11:02) media timeout, the score was 20-13, advantage Illinois. Both teams were looking sharp and matching each other’s intensity. Tunca was leading the Blue & White with five points. The Fighting Illini were shooting 44% from the field compared to Penn State’s 31%.
Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, was starting to heat up. He scored all seven of his points at this point in the game within a 2-minute span (8:51).
The Nittany Lions’ Eli Rice, was starting to get hot as well. He scored five straight points to pull Penn State within 12 (33-21) with (3:51) left to play in the half.
PSU’s freshman, Mason Blackwood, who has started to see more playing time as of late, knocked in two jump shots with one of them being from downtown, to trim PSU’s deficit to nine, 35-26, with (2:45) left in the first period.
At the half, it was Illinois 40 Penn State 26.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Eli Rice was leading the Blue & White with eight points and Boswell and Wagler were leading the Illini with 11 points and 10 points, respectively.
To start the second half, the Nittany Lions drained three three-pointers compliments of Kayden Mingo, Ivan Juric, and Freddie Dilione V.
At the first media timeout (15:27) of the second half, it was Illinois 48 Penn State 37, but the Nittany Lions were starting to find their stride.
Dilione cut the lead to nine with a steal and a putback, but then Illinois went on a 5-0 run to get their lead back to 14. With (12:05) left to play it was the Fighting Illini 53 Nittany Lions 39.
Penn State kept battling and went on a run of their own to cut the deficit to eight. With (7:20) left in the game, it was Illinois 57 Penn State 49.
Penn State’s Juric and Dilione each missed from downtown, while Illinois’ Boswell drained his three and with (5:24) to play it was the Fighting Illini 64 Nittany Lions 49.
The Nittany Lions put on their full court press trying to create turnovers, but they never got their deficit to under 8 points.
Illinois shot 39% from the field to Penn State’s 35%.
FINAL: Illinois 73 Penn State 65
